Pan Focaccia No Knead with Big Bubbles

For the last few months I've been baking bread and slowly testing out a special focaccia recipe. I wanted bubbles. BIG bubbles. While small bubbles or a tight crumb is just as tasty as a wide crumb there was just something elusive and tempting by a big bubble focaccia. And Dear Reader, I am so excited to share this spongy, big bubble Italian focaccia recipe with you. And best of all you don't need a mixer to make this at all! Let's make some focaccia bread!

Like many of you, I got into focaccia making during COVID. It was such a delicious, easy bread to make and perfect for decorating. I almost lost count of all of the decorative focaccias that I made! Remember the Floral Focaccia Garden? I even made a Halloween Focaccia using charcoal powder. Sometimes I'd get small bubbles, sometimes big and I just wanted to make a consistent big bubble focaccia. And here is my big bubble focaccia around 15 focaccias later haha (if I don't laugh I'll cry).

Tips For Getting Big Bubbles in your No Knead Pan Focaccia

1 Autolyse is one of the main keys to getting big bubbles. That means that for the very first step you will just mix the flour and water and let it sit. Then after 30 minutes you add the salt, sugar and yeast. Autolyse gives the flour in your bread recipe time to hydrate completely and also encourages gluten development which helps with structure. It's usually used for wholewheat breads to soften the bran but also works with white wheat flour. I mix it all in with this dough whisk.

2 High protein bread flour is also important to make this focaccia. You want at least 10-12% protein per 100g for this. Look for high protein bread flours like this. Make sure to look at the protein level per 100g/3.5ozs rather than per serving. Having said that, I have gotten big bubbles using a 10% protein flour.

3 While you don't have to knead this dough, you do have to do coil foils. This is just a term that means picking up the dough with your hand and lifting it from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position. Do this four times and then rest it for 30 minutes. Then repeat 3 times resting for 30 minutes between each fold. These stretch and folds encourage gluten development.

4 Time (along with autolyse) is the other very important key to big bubble focaccia. You need to let this dough bulk ferment in the fridge for 3 days. This also produces a better tasting focaccia.

Other Focaccia Recipes You Might Like:

• Potato & Rosemary Focaccia Bread
• Floral Focaccia Garden
• Sunflower Focaccia Bread
• Halloween Focaccia

Because I had made over 2 dozen focaccias all with tiny differences in time, temperature and ingredients I did not really expect this focaccia to turn out but I had an inkling it might. But I don't like to get too excited just in case it doesn't work. But when I let it cool and started cutting it up, I saw the big bubbles and let out an excited woohoo!

I ran to the front of the house where Mr NQN was sitting on his computer working. "I got it to work!!! We have BIG BUBBLES!!" I said jumping up and down. "Oh cool, hang on what?" he said slightly confused as to what I was talking about. "My focaccia!!!" I said. But already his lack of enthusiasm was killing my vibe so I left him to wonder what I was doing and raced back to the kitchen.

While Mr NQN was nonplussed, two little ones were super excited. If anyone has a dog, they'll know that a dog is ready to party whenever you are. When I ran excitedly back to the kitchen Teddy and Milo followed excitedly jumping up and down. Milo was so happy that he was spinning in circles while Teddy wagged his tail happily and ran alongside me. I absolutely love that dogs are ready to go whenever you are. There is a reason why they're called our best friends. And honestly Mr NQN has to step up his excitement game!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like big bubble focaccia? What gets you really excited?

Big Bubble Pan Focaccia No Knead

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 2 hours (not all active time) plus 3 days in fridge

Cooking time: 25 minutes

• 500g/1.1lbs bread flour (minimum 12g protein per 100g or 0.4 ounce per 3.5ozs)
• 460g/0.9pint water
• 8g/0.28oz instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 9g/0.3oz fine salt
• 6-7 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 75g/2.6ozs pitted olives
• Flaked salt

Step 1 - First mix the flour and water together in a large bowl making sure that there are no dry patches. Cover and sit for 30 minutes. Then stir in the yeast (I find it easiest to sprinkle this over) and sugar. Then add the salt and make sure that it is well mixed in with a dough whisk and there are no dry patches of yeast. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of oil on top and cover and sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Step 2 - Take the dough and lift it from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position. Then rest it for 30 minutes at room temperature. Then repeat this coil fold method an additional 3 times. Then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cover and keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Step 3 - Four hours before you want to bake it take the dough out of the fridge. Line a 28x22x7cm baking tin with parchment and drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over the base spreading it out. Do one final coil fold and place the dough into the tin. Cover with another high rimmed tin (so that the dough won't touch the tin once it doubles in size). Spread out as much as possible and leave it in a sunny area of the kitchen for 3-4 hours.

Step 4 - When the dough has doubled in size it should have spread out to all of the edges. Preheat oven to 220C/440F fan forced. When ready, drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top and dimple the focaccia (the fun bit!) creating bubbles and dimples with your fingers. Scatter rosemary on top and then olives and salt. Bake for 23-35 minutes. Allow to rest in the pan for 30 minutes and then slice up with a serrated bread knife.